CDOT Presents Project Plans

By Katie Collins Brush News-Tribune Staff Writer

Posted:
11/15/2012 03:34:43 PM MST

Updated:
11/15/2012 03:36:33 PM MST

Special guests in attendance at Tuesday night’s regular session of the Brush City Council, moved over one day due to the Veterans Day holiday, included a project team from the Colorado Department of Transportation, who laid out plans for a future project that will include reconstruction work through I-76 from Fort Morgan to Brush, as well as interchange work near its intersection with Highway 71, slated to begin as early as mid-March. The team includes project manager Michelle Martin of Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) who will be in charge of the design portion along with Gary Maji, a bridge engineer with the consultant engineering firm AECOM. CDOT project engineer manager Gale Siedenburg will be in charge of the construction portion. CDOT resident engineer Lou Keen first came before council as the spokeman for the Evans office which covers work from I-76 at its junction with Highway 34 to the Washington County line. According to Keen, the construction project limits will include the portion of I-76 just west of Dodd Bridge Road to just east of County Road 29, with a portion of Highway 71 to be included as crews plan to do away with the clover leaf interchange there that merges onto I-76 in order to replace it with a more traditional diamond design. The project will essentially cover nearly six miles of interstate near Brush where crews will replace 13 bridges and one box culvert, pave six miles of the interstate with concrete and upgrade the on-and-off-ramps to the interstate.

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Engineers estimate the project cost to be around $48 million dollars and although the endeavor had been planned for the fiscal year 2015, a $30.6 million surge in FASTER and other federal funds were made sooner than expected, making the bidding process to start as soon as January of 2013, with a pre-bid meeting expected to be set up as soon as December 2012. CDOT representatives noted Brush residents can expect to see a lot of activity surrounding the project to occur as early as January and possibly earlier during the bidding period when contractors will enter town to peruse the project.Work is slated to begin in mid-March and is expected to last through two construction seasons with the first season to begin mid-March through November 2013. Crews will then shut down for the winter and resume work the following year near April 2014, with total completion estimated for November 2014. Although the contract bidder awarded may change preliminary plans, CDOT expects to close down eastbound lanes of the interstate with traffic to run head-to-head on west-bound lanes through the first construction season.During the second season, those lanes will be swapped to include traffic running head-to-head on east-bound lanes while west-bound lanes are closed. CDOT also announced they plan to close Highway 71 for its duration of work, but have committed to closing it for no longer than 90 days while crews work on a pedestrian crossing including 5-foot sidewalks and vandal fencing. With members of the Brush City Council and staff concerned about the impact to businesses during the construction period, City Administrator Monty Torres noted that staff will strive to alleviate issues with local businesses by working closely with them before and during the reconstruction to keep access open. “It’s our goal to be good neighbors,” Lou Keen concluded during his presentation. “We’ll be out here for a couple of years. We will tear up essentially your backyard and there will be trying times, but you have our commitment that we’ll partner closely with the city to make sure businesses and the community comes out looking good.”

OTHER BUSINESSAlso during the November 13 meeting, council approved, by roll call vote, a final settlement for the Brush Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility for Moltz Construction. According to plant manager Dale Colerick, the plant has received a certification of occupancy from the county and is officially complete. Colerick also noted that while it may be some time before the public is invited to peruse the plant, an open house for city officials and associated government agencies tentatively will be slated for December 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also approved on the night was an Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Program application, filed by the City of Brush for aid in completing Phase Four of the Downtown Revitalization project. According to the city’s description of the project, the downtown business area experiences significant storm water flooding during rain events which impacts the economic vitality and health of the City’s primary commercial core district. This project would construct storm water infrastructure from the downtown business core, as well as construct a drainage pond on city-owned property east of Brush. This phase will complete the Downtown Revitalization project. Resolution 2012-7 was also approved unanimously by the city council as a resolution appropriating additional sums of money to defray expenses in excess amounts budgeted for the City of Brush for the purpose of meeting unforeseen expenditures during 2012. The City of Brush will prepare for an upcoming Budget Retreat, slated to be held at City Hall on November 19 at 5:30 p.m. to prepare the 2013 budget. Also, City of Brush offices will close for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23.

CITY DETAILS WINTER WEATHER METHODS“Winter weather is here,” noted Brush Chief of Police Mark Thomas at the first November meeting of the Brush City Council, “and that brings with it winter driving.”Chief Thomas, along with Director of Public Works and Utilities Dale Colerick, outlined before council members and city staff the protocol taken throughout Brush during winter weather events. According to Chief Thomas, the Police Department’s role in keeping the public safe during hazardous weather includes being the first to call out the street department while patrolling Brush, noting the criteria the police look for before making the call. “Just because streets are slick, doesn’t mean we’ll call the street department,” he said. “We first look to see if it is snowing very hard and if so, then there is no sense in putting down sand as the snow will just cover it up.” “We also look at how hard the wind is blowing,” he continued. “If it is blowing very hard it won’t do us any good to put sand down either. Our main concerns are that people can stop at stop signs and at traffic signals without sliding around. If vehicles do slide, then we make the call.”In the event of a major snowstorm, the street department looks at four levels of snow removal routes. The primary routes through Brush, those detailed as the heaviest traveled, are tackled first and include Colorado Avenue, Mill Street, Hospital Road, Edison, Clayton and Ray Street, including the areas around schools and the hospital as they are safety sensitive areas.Once those are cleared, crews take to the secondary routes including South Clayton, South Railway, Ellsworth, sections of County Road R, Custer and Cambridge. From there it’s on to the level three streets such as east-west streets and Edmunds and Eaton. Level four routes include side streets. The order in which those side streets are tackled rotates from storm to storm and as Colerick mentioned, “Whereas we may have only one or two good snowstorms per year in Brush, it may be two and a half years or so before you’re first on the list to have your side streets cleaned.” “Typically what we find is that by the time we finish off primary, secondary and tertiary routes, the side streets have already started to melt and clean off,” noted Colerick, who also mentioned that a map detailing these primary, secondary and tertiary routes will be made available on the City of Brush website at www.brushcolo.com. Colerick also reminded citizens who live on routes encompassing the first three levels to make sure that when knowledge of an approaching storm becomes available, that they move vehicles off the street to make room for crews, for the grater and snow blower. “Just because it snows doesn’t mean we’ll mobilize everybody,” said Colerick of storms that bring just a few inches of snow. “Sometimes the best snow removal is the sun.”

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